home SUITE home

I want my brio54*. Click the link to see 8 pix, if you can bear the infuriating interface on the site.

* lifepod thingy

NOT from the makers of 'Dick in a Box'

Tired of inquisitive border guards, and big jerks redefining the after-life without even asking for your input?

Well take your mind off all that crap with Casulo the award-winning concept that puts an entire rooms worth of furniture into a single box. Watch the vid!

From Liz H bay-bee, via Gizmodo.

Helvetica

A new movie devoted to Helvetica! Is it a force for good or evil? Is Helvetica trying to take over the world? What makes Helvetica tick?

un-keyboard

Laser-projected...
fraught with difficulty.

Where's the Off Switch on this Dress?

Skip ahead to the nine or ten minute mark on this video of a runway show last week in Paris. The clothes alter themselves; lifting their own hemlines, making slits, spitting out beads, and zipping up bodices. A hat loses it's brim. It looks like a digital special effect but it ain't.
If you're still not interested, it ends with a nude supermodel.

From Designer Hussein Chalayan.

Walk barefoot everywhere

Get yourself a grass-lined wheel and you're all set. At least until you get to a revolving door. Then you're probably screwed.

RobotMonkeyPirate! (beta release!)

Be the first on your block to rock the brand-spankin' new designs from House of Carl. Jeff has sketched up some pretty cool stuff, and we're doing what anyone with a minimal amount of creativity would do: we're puttin 'em on T-shirts, baby!

All proceeds from the shop go toward the purchase of beer and surfing lessons. And if you ne'erdowells have any designs or ideas for the future, send 'em in and we'll get them made. (Or more accurately, Spreadshirt^* will.) There's lot's more to come. At least that's the fantasy in my head.

Current designs include:

• RobotMonkeyPirate!
  See, it's a robot that LOOKS like a monkey, but he dresses like a pirate...
• Pabst Blue Robot
  Also available in muscle T, for showing off your pythons.
• "whew!" for you squid lovers.
  I have to admit when I first saw this, I thought it was a squid fucking an octopus. Carl assures me this is not the case.
• As well as a few other designs made from Spreadshirt's stock artwork

YAAAR!

^* We're not talkin' some weak-ass Café Press digital printing on crappy tees. Spreadshirt quality is excellent.

2,002 Honest Fonts

From now on, I'm doing everything in "Retardeder."

Surface Deep

Interesting article about some recently deceased paperfolding genius.
Yes that's a single folded piece of paper....

A Design Epiphany: Keep It Simple

Dr. Maeda, an associate professor of design and computation at the M.I.T. Media Lab and an award-winning graphic designer, has spent eight months putting forward his own one-word vision of the future: simplicity... Despite the lip service paid to "ease of use," "plug and play," and "one-click shopping," simplicity is an endangered quality in the digital world, he adds, and it is time to break free from technology's intimidating complexity.

Read the Article

Planning on taking over the world?

You're gonna need a good conference table. These guys can hook you up.

Vulva's-or rather Volvo's new car for women, designed by women

And for women with ponytails, there is even a split in the middle of the headrest. "It is very uncomfortable to drive with a ponytail," said Ms Christiansen.

Whatever. My question is...will the oil have to be changed every 28 days?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3528757.stm

Dodge 'em!

A pickup truck (Gosh, what are the odds?) is the latest vehicle to crash with a Metro light rail train Sunday night.
Chalk up another point for our bumper car transit system.
Trains 11, cars 0!

Bombardier Embrio

Holy crap this is cool. This seems like the type of vehicle that would "hum" in that sci-fi vehicle sort of way.

Bombardier Press Release

via more like this

Point Of Collapse

Jomo Prince considers himself a veteran of the East River bridges. As a high school student at Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics, he would often walk home over the Brooklyn Bridge. On 9-11, he used the Queensboro to flee the city. And today, he drives across the Manhattan Bridge "all the time."

But on August 14, the night of the blackout, the 28-year-old computer technician for the architectural firm Kohn Pedersen Fox experienced something he'd never felt before. Packed shoulder to shoulder with pedestrians, he could feel the Brooklyn Bridge sway so much that if he stood still he couldn't keep his balance. Then there was the groaning.

-- -- -- -- -- -- --

This is an interesting piece from the Village Voice. Two other instances of the sway phenomena are the Millenium Bridge in London, mentioned in the story above, and (famously) the Tacoma Narrows Disaster (below)...

Git yo bling on

Useful (?) Photoshop tutorial for acheiving that "Bling Bling" effect all those rapper guys are always talking about. Bookmark it for your next redesign of the St. Lunatic's website, or creating the word mark for your neighborhood up-and-coming rap artist.

Yeah, I think it's time for a redesign...

via more like this

Credit where credit is due

Nice to see that while former NVU staffer John Fuller did not receive any credit for his hard work with Steve on the new Bobcats logo, THANKFULLY Chad Rupp did...phew! Isn't he creative director now?

Advice for Satanic Web Page Design

Style is always more important than content in Satanic sites.

Amen, brutha! Err... I mean, isn't that so true?

(via Rini.org, home of the most excellent Iraqi Information Minister 404 page.)

Infographic: How many good guys are dead?

Someone over at MSNBC has a little too much time on their hands.

Of note:

1. The prominent "View Most Recent" button. For those times when you caught a glimpse of casualties on "the crawl" but really need the gritty details of how they were killed.
2. The accidental deaths vs. enemy fire pie chart. Lovely stat, that.

UPDATE: Dead Iraqi Would Have Loved Democracy

Brown. Get it? OK, How about Coke II?

Paul Rand is probably on spin dry about now...

New business model: Deliveries, Orders, Wares and Nicieites

Gay Pride Twenties, coming soon to a wallet near you

Does anyone besides me think this is weird?

The Popcorn Fork

Where have you been all my life?

via boing boing

Whay do they call them safety rails?

Lorem Ipsum

For the graphic geek in all of us.

Tiny Envelopes

You know when you've just written a tiny letter with your tiny pen and you can't find anything to put it in?

That's so frustrating.

Thank goodness, then, for tinyenvelope.com.

via daily candy

Monster Dolls

Freak out the youngsters in your life this holiday season.

Shit, did I just say that? It's August!

via dangerousmeta!

Flashy.

2advanced.com

Cool.

Luxury = Complicated and Messy

In a lesser car, you might simply twist a knob. In the 745i, tuning the radio is an interactive experience at 75 m.p.h.

Customatix - the latest crack

Design your own footwear. And none of that lame ass Nike shit, neither...

via Ryan D.

Design for Chunks

Those who've worked with me know I'm not that design-savvy. But these vomit bags rock!

via Liz H

From Web Design to Topless Bars

Do you recall a stock known as Internet Advisory Corp. from back in the salad days of the dot-com boom?

Wonder whatÕs happened to it since then? Well, read on for the heartwarming tale of a Web-design outfit that crashed in the tech wreck, and is now trying to resurrect itself as a topless bar.

The PaperPDA

[T]he form factor of the PaperPDA has several advantages to it. It is highly flexible. You can bend it, fold it, crumple it up, and it still works. It weighs almost nothing. And it fits perfectly in a pocket. If you encounter a smaller pocket, you can just fold it over again. Power consumption is zero.

Johnny JPEG's clever personal organizer he designed last year is like the PaperPDA Super-Deluxe XT Mark VII model with the kung-fu grip.

via aaronland

Communicate with LOVE

I can totally see Andrew attaching one of these to HIS cell phone...especially 'benny the beaver.'

Design Defense Ministry

Print some out and put 'em up in your neck of the woods.

via Neoflux

Need a new jobby-job

As yet another victim of the (A) dot-bomb crash, and (B) the terrorist attack-induced recession, I went to work one day to find that I had been downsized. Made redundant. Laid off. Canned. Ouch!

In an effort to rectify this situation, I have posted my resume and portfolio online thanks to the most generous proprietors of this fine weblog establishment, House8.

Have yourself a look-see and let me know what you think. If anyone has a good lead on full or part-time employment for a graphic designer with several years of web and print experience, I'm your man!

johnf@house8.net

Andrew and Lisa's Housewarming Gift

What do you say guys? Let's all pitch in for this collector's piece!

Scott Adams and IDEO design the ultimate cube

Hah! John, they've created the ultimate option for you!

...we've got the guest chair that folds down from the wall, Murphy-style. Two advantages: One, they can't borrow it and never bring it back -- huge problem. And two, it activates a timer that after some preset time will make the phone ring so you can take that important call, excuse yourself, send your guest away.

via Dan Says...

Coudal.com: Photoshop Tennis

Teens Swamp Police with Fake IDs

Through the Internet, replica driver's licenses are available from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and territories such as Guam and American Samoa.

"Dude, what state are you from (wink wink)?"

"Screw the states, dude...I'm from Guam!"

via Hari

espn.com redesign

I have to say I like the subtle updated look of espn.com, especially the added Bottom Line features. They don't just cram it down at the bottom and make their users deal with a frameset. You can also turn it off or put it in an out-of-the-way popup. You can also fast forward and reverse through the ticker and pause it. Nice.

Now if only you could have as many options for the TV version. Sure, it's nice to have it there if you're just flipping thru and want to check a score, but does it have to be there all the time on espn2?

The van der Rohe Barcelona Chair

"The chair has been in constant production since the 50's and is comfort resistant. Your spine is not shaped that way."

-- John H., Home Furnishing Counselor

Wallet Makers Style New Euro-Fit Designs

A Treasury statement hailed the return of the coin-carrying purse and sought to reassure the fashion-conscious Italian public that the euro will not offend their sense of style.

"Leather-goods makers are getting their act together and have already designed new collections of "euro-compatible" products," the Treasury said.

Well thank Kee-rist for that! As long as there's something in a Leopard print.

I guess I never really thought about Europe changing currency in terms of wallet sizes and whatnot. No wonder they're all so cranky about the Euro. We Umuricuns certainly got our undies all in a bundle when the mint decided to re-design the quarter. Can you imagine if they suddenly tried to replace the paper dollar with a coin that was worth $5.00?

The Sacagawea golden dollar, which I just saw in person for the first time a couple of weeks ago, appears to be a smash hit. So much so, the mint has begun turning the surplus into high class jewelry.

It's a bit of a shame we can't get used to a dollar coin. English pound coins are so aesthetically pleasing. I haven't seen the new 2 pound coin yet, though. Maybe we should go to London after all, Graf!